15 
Votes of thanks to Mr. Austen and Mr. Bartlett were 
passed. 
Mr. J. C. Sigsworth presented to the Club a slide of 
Plumularia cristata. 
The following gentlemen were elected members of the 
Club :—Messrs. Ebenezer Diver, O. T. Hodges, and W. A. 
Adams. 
The Presment alluded, in feeling terms, to the death 
of R. Hovenden, Esq., a much respected member of the 
Club. 
May 15th, 1872.—Paper by H. Lez, Esq., the President, on 
‘‘Tae Microscopy or a FisomMoncer’s Suop.’’—The Prest- 
DENT, in introducing his subject, said—-‘‘ If we take our stand in 
front of a well-stocked fish shop, determined to examine with 
intelligent appreciation a spectacle which we have passed day 
by day and hundreds of times, with the carelessness and want 
of observation which familiarity is too apt to engender, our 
notice will probably be first attracted by the great difference of 
external form, the variety of coloration, and the dissimilarity 
of the dermal covering of the fishes exposed for sale on the cool 
and moistened slab. Frequent absence from home, such as I 
am subject to, may have its advantages to the collector, but it has 
its drawbacks too. It may bring into his possession a greater 
variety of objects, but it is a serious obstacle to prolonged and 
continuous observation of the habits and development of living 
organisms, and to the successful preparation and mounting of 
specimens requiring to be soaked in potash, turpentine, or 
other fluids, the action of which it is necessary to arrest at 
the proper moment: I mention this because it is my wish to 
direct attention to the quantity of valuable material for the 
study of marine zoology easily obtainable by residents in an 
inland town who may seldom have an opportunity of going to 
the seaside ; and whilst trying to describe a few of the objects 
of zoological interest to be found in a fishmonger’s shop, I 
shall refer chiefly, but not entirely, to those branches of the 
subject which can be best investigated by the aid of the 
microscope.” Mr. Lee having referred, as examples of the 
variety of form, to the aristocratic salmon, the lordly turbot, 
and the snake-like eel, said he mentioned these three fishes 
not only because they offered a marked divergence from each 
other in outward shape, but because they would serve him 
presently as illustrations of the existence, in organs apparently 
identical in each of them, of an important difference hitherto 
only recognised by its consequences, and the nature and 
cause of which, if ever we discovered it, could only, as he 
